When it comes to content for your mobile site, it seems there is not a lot of correlation between traffic and conversion.

That's according to research from Adobe and Econsultancy that suggests we need as content marketers need to take a different approach when writing content for mobile sites.

They found businesses reported that 31 per cent of their web traffic comes via mobile. However, most of the firms (71 per cent) in the survey said they achieve less than one-fifth of overall e-commerce revenue through mobile devices.In other words, you can draw in people with your mobile content but it's harder to produce something meaty enough to get them to buy.

Or you could look at it another way; optimise your mobile site with content that is all about catching people's attention, rather than stuff that's designed to produce the sale.

So should be thinking about top fives, short snappy blogs or even just a few lines to make people click through to the main website.Leave the white papers and in-depth features and case studies to your main website or even your social media campaigns.

There is a gaping gulf between the value that firms place on content marketing and their ability to execute. According to latest research from Aberdeen Group, the ability to produce high quality content is ranked as valuable or very valuable by 92 per cent of companies, while just 52 per cent called their level of execution effective or very effective. Volume is another concern: publishing sufficient content to meet our needs is cited as valuable by 75% of firms, but only 32% of companies claim effectiveness in execution.

As noted in previous blogs, those excelling in content production view themselves as publishers.

So, where to begin? Companies should start with a plan that maps content to buyers’ decision journey. In other words, what types of content are needed early in the exploration stages of the journey versus content required later in the consideration and evaluation stages.

Secondly, Kucera recommends you consider underlying processes. "Effective content marketing - particularly content marketing for lead nurturing - requires more than just great content, you need the supporting processes that constitute an integrated demand funnel."

Prepare for success should be another way to start. This means having a way of tracking the impact. "Use a measure of lift to track both the evolutionary impact of content marketing ... and the impact of specific content assets versus the mean," says Kucera.

Finally, the report suggests integrated solutions to support content marketing. Its author writes: "Content marketing is influencing nearly every aspect of modern marketing. Firms should consider how discrete technologies operate as a system of solutions, and also consider emerging content marketing software platforms, an integrated, content-centric solution to manage the development, distribution, measurement, and optimisation of content across channels."

Where does content writing fit into your business's marketing strategy? Wherever it is, brands will have to pay increasing amounts of attention to the area, according to new research. A European survey of 2,000 marketing students reveals over 80% think stand alone social media and digital marketing agencies will disappear within ten years as the channel becomes a discipline for all marketers.

Seven in ten believe marketing landscape will be dominated bycontent marketing or PR thinking. As we have said before in this column, a step-change is taking place as brands realise they have to create a conversation with consumers through content, not just preach at them and tell them to buy stuff with adverts. Matt Neale, president of Golin Harris, said: "These predictions are not surprising. In fact ten years may be too generous. Today we're seeing digital specialists folded into PR and advertising agencies at a rapid pace. The agency of the future will operate across all media channels, in real time. "I'd advise independent social agencies to find a partner quickly as clients want agency depth." What do content marketing specialists think of the findings? We turn to Clare Hill, managing director of the Content Marketing Association (CMA). She said: "Content marketing is one of the fastest growing media channels and the future looks bright for this discipline with 70% of respondents identifying that the landscape will be dominated by content marketing. Asking the youth market what they think is indicative of the way the relationship between consumer and brands is moving. It is now a far more conversational approach, interactive with a two way dialogue. "Content marketing is changing the marketing eco system because content is channel neutral, is multi-platform and it needs to be 'Always on'."

Content marketing is now being used by the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) to reach out and engage with the public. It has launched a standalone website called The Big Stage, a photo-heavy site that is more about imagery than a great deal of high class content writing or journalism. The site boasts an range of content designed to appeal, from 'featured stories' and its 'news desk' to a 'company watch' section and 'innovation in action' page.There is also a lot of video content, Q&As with a range of NYSE-listed company bosses and a strong social media presence.

Content marketing is growing all the time as interruption advertising falls by the wayside in favour of brands creating a conversation with followers. Indeed, an April 2013 survey of US marketing and advertising executives by MailOnline reveals 70% of brands and 77% of agencies used content marketing for advertising purposes during the previous year. According to eMarketer, executives are sourcing the content for their marketing from a variety of angles.

By Ingridarcher Ingrid Archer (Own work made by spotonvision)

Over half (58%) of agencies obtained branded content from the publishers from whom they purchased media. Clients were the second most popular origin for content, at 49%, followed by third-party content creators (37%) – that's us! And agencies are branching out, finally realising that content writing services don't just need to pigeon holed for web copy. Seven in ten distributed content in digital media other than email or the brand's own website – content marketing is more than just a few words on a company's site. Why are businesses turning to content marketing providers? Clearly there is a major change going on as we move away from brands aggressively filling users' space without their consent to a more democratic approach. Content marketing by its very nature simply helps brands and organisations reach the people they want, while allowing those same people to find them easily. Put simply, content marketing is a way of putting people with needs in contact with the organisations or individuals who can fulfil those needs. A recent blog post explained some of the key ideas. As well as rolling out the old word-of-mouth exposure angle (social media shares) and the (still vital) search engine ranking boost benefits, the author, Phil Lauterjung, highlighted this growing trend away from interruption-based ads. "The focus of your web content must be to educate people so they will get to know you and trust you enough to buy from you. E-mail and direct mail campaigns should be focused on providing a steady stream of information to convince prospects that your products or services offer the best solution for their situation," he says .

"Drip e-mail campaigns can even be put on autopilot with Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software. Just remember, an overzealous sales pitch will turn visitors off and direct them toward your competition. "The type of content you share is closely related to what you sell. You must develop useful content that will help your target audience solve a problem or answer an important question. Your informative content should achieve what advertising is supposed to achieve. If you could watch TV at night and fast-forward through the hemorrhoid cream commercials, would you? Your website visitors feel the same way."

Spamming, keyword stuffing and link-building practices are being penalised heavily – what is generally described as black hat SEO. White hat, on the other hand, is all about finding ways to make your site rank well because it genuinely deserves to.

"Sites affected by this change might not be easily recognisable as spamming without deep analysis or expertise, but the common thread is that these sites are doing much more than white hat SEO; we believe they are engaging in webspam tactics to manipulate search engine rankings," the Webmaster Central Blog explained in April.

White hat versus black hat

"White hat search engine optimisers often improve the usability of a site, help create great content, or make sites faster, which is good for both users and search engines," the blog explained.

"Good search engine optimisation can also mean good marketing: thinking about creative ways to make a site more compelling, which can help with search engines as well as social media.

"The net result of making a great site is often greater awareness of that site on the web, which can translate into more people linking to or visiting a site."

The opposite of white hat SEO is black hat webspam.

"In the pursuit of higher rankings or traffic, a few sites use techniques that don’t benefit users, where the intent is to look for shortcuts or loopholes that would rank pages higher than they deserve to be ranked. We see all sorts of webspam techniques every day, from keyword stuffing to link schemes that attempt to propel sites higher in rankings," explains Google.

Check your site ranking now to see whether you've been affected. If you have, it might mean you need to think about producing great content and a genuinely engaging experience for users, rather than simply trying by hook or by crook to get on page one.

For brands there is a clear case for reaching out to consumers online with content marketing – millions of Brits use the internet every day and the number not hooked up is falling rapidly. New figures from the Office of National Statistics reveal 43.5 million adults are now online, one million more than this time last year. Businesses and brands are responding, increasing their digital marketing budgets consistently while cash for other media stays flat. But there is still work to be done; there over seven million British adults who are not online. Most importantly, however, young people are by and large 100 per cent internet-savvy. Indeed the ONS data shows 99 per cent of 16 to 24-year-olds have used the web. The figures remain almost as good all the way up to people in the mid-50s, encompassing the vast majority of the UK's consumers. A spokesperson for the ONS said: "Internet use is linked to various socioeconomic and demographic characteristics, such as age, sex, disability, geographical location and weekly earnings. "For example, those who are less likely to have used the internet include elderly and disabled adults."

"The bottom line is that content marketing is a great way of generating inbound traffic and making money online. The success of your online marketing depends on timely and effective implementation of online marketing plan. You also to use the right channels, engage your audience, and evaluate the effectiveness of your activities periodically. With all things in place, there is no reason why your content marketing should fail."

Ultimately, that's what copy writing should be about - generating customers for your business. It's no use spending all your cash on loads of words if it doesn't improve your top line profits. Or, as this post points out, brand visibility.

There is loads to digest in the article and we suggest you check it out if you are unsure about the benefits of having loads of great content on your website and elsewhere.

Content marketing aside for once, the latest Google update – dubbed Zebra – will have some serious implications on traffic for online merchants.

At SXSW in Austin, Google head honcho on these matters, Matt Cutts, said there will be a large Penguin update in 2013.

Apparently Google’s search quality team is working on a major update to the Penguin algorithm, which he dubbed significant.

Penguin affects the way we do SEO and content marketing for all websites, but now merchants are being singled out for the algo treatment with Zebra.

"We have a potential launch later this year, maybe a little bit sooner, looking at the quality of merchants and whether we can do a better job on that, because we don’t want low quality experience merchants to be ranking in the search results," Cutts said.

Search Engine Journal helpfully explains the full ramifications (what we know), but here is a quick rundown of what Google is likely to be wanting 'good' merchants to have.

A “view your shopping cart” link that stays on the same site.

A shopping cart that updates when you add items to it.

A return policy with a physical address.

A shipping charge calculator that works.

A “wish list” link, or a link to postpone the purchase of an item until later.

A way to track FedEx orders.

A user forum that works.

The ability to register or login.

A gift registry that works.

So what does it mean? We'll all have to keep improving our websites and content to ensure we stayed at the top. So not much then, just the usual one-step ahead game we have to play all the time to satisfy Google.

So the global market place is looking healthier, but what's the situation look like in the UK?

The IPA Bellwether report reveals over a third (36 per cent) of marketing executives plan to raise 2013 budgets in comparison to last year.

Internet advertising was the strongest performer in the first three months of 2013, rising 8.9 per cent, according to the survey.

In terms of content marketing, online search/SEO spend was up 1.8 per cent.

Chris Williamson, chief economist at Markit and author of the Bellwether report, said: "An upturn in business confidence and corresponding increase in budgeted marketing spend for 2013 augurs well for the wider economy. However, while the Bellwether is suggesting the economy is recovering, it looks set to be another challenging year for businesses and the pace of economic expansion is likely to be modest."